Our old friend Brian Lambert is back with some more food for thought…
I used to write more frequently for Mike. Those writings were me working out, in myself, the thoughts and doctrines I had accepted into my mind from L Ron Hubbard that were toxic to my mental, emotional and spiritual health.
I’ve not written more recently because my previous writings have purged from my mind the subjects that I wrote about. The very idea of the existence of Scientology is gone from my mind 99.99%. No longer is Hubbard and his mad army of diminishing world savers occupying my mind.
But this morning a thought popped up. That thought was the idea of “clearing the planet” or in wog terms: saving the world.
Being indoctrinated into the idea that we can “save the world” is a very powerful behavior modification. I’ve had to purge this doctrine from my thoughts.
Coupled with the doctrine of the “greatest good”, these two doctrines working hand in hand can create a benevolent hero or a cult tyrant.
When I look at my own life and consider what happened to me when I agreed that Scientology could save the world, I see a few things happened to me:
1- it created a new sense of self worth
2- it gave me a new sense of purpose
3- my ego enjoyed being in an elite 3rd dynamic
4- it absolutely overpowered my 1st and 2nd dynamics and probably more.
Once I agreed that Scientology was the “only way” to save the world then the next doctrine that informs action and behavior is the doctrine of “the greater good.”
The world is the entire enchilada: all people everywhere, all animals everywhere, all oceans everywhere. Everything!
The world IS the “greater” in greater good. When we are thinking in these absolute terms like planet, world, mankind etc. it’s then rational to conclude, that if given a choice between a thousand people dying or the whole planet dying, choosing a thousand people to die is the greater good.
The key to knowing if “greater good” is benevolent or not is motive, moral compass and sanity of the individual deciding.
For example, let’s say a captain of a big ship had to decide between flooding a portion of the ship where 100 people where living or not flooding it and the entire ship sinks with 5,000 people. That greatest good decision is based on a very morally difficult but morally sound decision. This is “saving the world” with the “greatest good” being the moral compass. More lives where saved than lives lost. It’s a benevolent decision.
The problem with saving the world with the greater good comes into play when we are attracted to cultish psycho nut jobs trying to save the world and we buy into their malevolent murderous clown circus.
Stalin, Lenin, Hitler and Mao absolutely thought they were saving the world. For the greater good tens of millions of human beings were murdered.
Saving the world with the greater good being the deciding factor basically puts a value on human life: who lives and who dies.
Assuming that captain was a decent human being, that decision was probably the things of nightmares for him personally. What a struggle emotionally and morally to decide that 100 lives where less valuable when put through the “greater good” thought machine.
Now let’s look at how Hubbard promoted saving the world with “the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics.”
Like all cult tyrants, Malignant Narcissism, not moral benevolence is their MO. Cult leaders are never self-aware. That is because for the cult leader the enemy is always a delusional external force. Cult tyrants never blame themselves or their organization for any shortcomings. Self awareness is completely absent. L. Ron Hubbard’s was completely unaware of the cause of his own self inflicted demise and of the demise of Scientology. His enemy were his own thought forms.
The captain of that ship had a real enemy: water. L Ron Hubbard had delusional space aliens and Xenu. So because Ron was saving the world from his own unstable psychology, saving the world with the greater good for the Scientologist was unstable psychologically.
This is when disconnection and harming children, mothers, fathers, friends and all sacred connections becomes the delusional saving the world with the greatest good as the moral compass.
The enemy on that ship was water. The enemy for Hubbard was anyone who questions him. You see, it’s the same process for the captain and Ron: saving the world with the greater good for the greatest number. But its the mental health and moral intelligence of the person which determines the quality of the outcome.
Mao murdered approx 45 million people trying to save the world.
Hitler murdered between 5 and 6 million Jews trying to save the world.
Hubbard destroyed countless families, livelihoods and sanity trying to save the world.
Lesson that I have learned from this:
Saving the world is a delusional goal.
Once saving the world becomes a goal, that goal supersedes the “lesser goal” of the individual. Then indecent acts are justified against perceived enemies of saving the world.
I looked into my mind and perceived the times I thought I was saving the world as a Scientologist. I saw how the magnitude of the goal, the perceived “benevolence” of the goal diminished the importance of my individual life.
Once I devalued my individual and personal life to “clear the planet”, it became easier and a moral imperative to devalue other individuals. In Scientology those individuals are called SPs, critics, other practices etc.
This is the time the cult member throws away the sacred bonds of true friendship and family. Family and friends then become those unfortunate 100 cruise ship revelers relegated to death to save the world, using the greater good as the deciding factor.
World savers are the most dangerous people in history. Ron was one of those.
I’ve renounced completely the desire to save the world. For one, it’s impossible and a bit narcissistic actually. It gave me a false sense of importance, filling the empty holes in my own self worth.
I am only interested in saving myself, putting on my oxygen mask first. And with conscious self evolution, and courageous consciousness transformation to become a better person, I am then in a better place to help those in my actual world. The world of family, friends, associates, clients and lovers etc.
Saving the world is local. It’s save yourself first, then we can give love and service to our circle of friends and family.
Dump saving the world and saving people as a goal. There are too many ill equipped people that are pushing cult madness.
Become a sane person. Then we can offer assistance to those in need in our real, everyday, common, nothing special world.
Only self aware people can help others when they ask.
If saving the world means defeating space aliens and SPs and not overcoming selfishness, that is not being self aware.
That is a mind being corrupted with the self denying doctrine of…..
Saving the world.
Saving the world is an impossible, delusional goal.
Clearing the planet is the one doctrine that was capable of devaluing and destroying families and friends. For the “greatest good” of course.
Brian Thomas Lambert
Thank you Brian
This is well timed for me.
It was only very recently I ran into a brick wall hard enough to wake up to the situation…..
The Saving The World responsibility gets in so deeply.
Thanks for a well timed article.
unexpected understanding can succor a day.
You are welcome Mr Winkle. We are all slowly waking from our slumber of wrong and dangerous knowledge.
May I suggest for you a clean shave of that long beard and change your name now to the Phoenix.
Thank you so much for getting it at this exact time for you. I appreciate it truly.
Brian,
Well stated. When I realized 8 years ago I was done with the organization I realized I no longer had a sky high purpose that was both heroic and altruistic. What to do, what to do? I think many ex-Scientologists are at a loss once they lose the humongous goal to clear the planet. For each of us I feel we must find a purpose that is long term or a lifetime purpose. For me it is supporting my group and the individuals in it. Music artists is my group and they do change the world for the better. In fact music is the universal language. So I have been mentoring music artists and supporting the various groups that have formed around forwarding music and music creators.
Music kept me somewhat connected to non-Scientologists and also kept me grounded. When I had my breakdown it was tied to not being able to create anymore. In Scientology no purpose is as important as forwarding Scientology. How many artists of all kinds gave up their passion to dedicate themselves to Hubbards false purpose?
Thanks Brian for cogently clarifying the psychopathic leaders unattainable goal.
Wonderful views Geoff!
Great article, Brian.
I’ve gone through a similar transition.
Scientology is a prime example of why utilitarianism sucks balls.
As much as I applied this when in, the idea of a world ruled by the CoS/ethics & justice codes terrified me. I suspect I was far from unique. For me, this particular cognitive dissonance is hard to fathom, even now.
Kant’s categorical imperative is currently serving me well in life.
I think the genius, if I can use that word, with cult tyrants is their mastery of thought control. Governments around the world have for decades sought to influence populations with the same mind control techniques.
Overthrowing governments by instilling a narrative in media causing normally decent people to act indecently.
As a naive young boy who loved eastern thought when Hubbard claimed to be the predicated prophet of the Buddha I took the cheese. Ever after that moment I gave him the power to instill thoughts and behaviors into me.
The good deceivers are able to cause us to think it is our independent decisions that cause us to follow a cult tyrant unquestionably.
They do this by priming trust little by little, always causing us to view them as special and apart from others, always a little better than everyone.
I have compassion for all of us. It wasn’t because we were stupid (although that is always a possibility lol!) it was because we trusted. Con men are expert at creating trust as a web to snare their victim.
It was also our goodness that Hubbard tapped into. All cult tyrants are expert at making the cult member feel they are doing good and helping people.
Our goodness, naivety, trust, desire to grow and learn, the desire to be happy and help others…
are all expertly manipulated to make each of these positive traits into self created prison bars.
The positive thing, for me, getting through Hubbard, is my BS detector is top of game. The only thing I trust now is my ability to research, analyze and inquire into claims made by others.
You do good work John. Thank you for helping people work through the mind prison.
It’s just a little too easy for us humans to be fooled like this. But on the other hand, maybe it’s the experience of getting caught in it that frees us from it when we wake up.
Brian said ” Cult leaders are never self-aware. That is because for the cult leader the enemy is always a delusional external force. Cult tyrants never blame themselves or their organization for any shortcomings” 👌
It’s all because they are the King not the King Maker ( one who pull the strings).
Cult leaders are choosen by ” The King Makers” for sinster motive .
History goes back thousands of years and they act as catalyst ( cannot be identified but act behind the scene) in bringing changes through an unconventional mean known as ” obsession”
That’s why in every Cult one thing is common ” reality is subjective from the point of view of observer ( follower) ”
That’s why the follower give himself at the disposal of the Cult leader. As he blend his reality with the leaders.
This is obsession , the ultimate product of Cult.
So who is biggest enemy of Cults, those who accept the reality after empirical evidence .
It includes all those graduated from Universities , especially PhD scholars.
If you want to see death on the face of cult follower , mention the word University.
How do you save a planet? Hubbard’s tech in more than 70 years has so far failed to even “save” a neighborhood.
What Brian says is holy water. It all starts with saving yourself first ‘selfishly’. Only in this way can you perhaps create a domino effect with others.
In reality mankind must become aware of itself through experience, there are no shortcuts.
What scn proposes is only a useless ego boosting.
Thank you Brian… For communicating these very astute observations!
IF applied altruistically with a good heart, LRH’s tech, as well as some other techs like medicine CAN be useful to help another person to help themselves. But “saving the world” or “clearing the planet” is a cop-out.
Ironically and sadly, most “scientologists” never even learn how to audit and most of those seldom do. … They would do more towards their stated goal if each of them would just help one otherperson by whatever means to do better in life once per day.
It’s nice to hear from a sane Scientologist. I appreciate your balanced view.
Thank you for the acknowledgement, Brian. My “secret” is that I have never “believed in” Scientology. I have only studied it and used whatever I have learned only for the purpose of being of assistance to other people and myself. 🤫🤗
Karl, I agree with you here. In my experience, there are some amazing aspects to auditing, learning and applying the auditor’s code, and many of the auditing processes. Positive, useful, and constructive.
It’s too bad that basic auditing cannot be made easily and readily available, and supported for broad use. As any Former-In knows, it really is NOT. There are an enormous amount of hoops to jump through and standards and certifications to maintain. In my experience, an org staff is trained to stomp out any use of auditing technology beyond its walls and to do so with severe justice actions, such as Committees of Evidence and Non-Enturbulation Orders.
In addition, if one simply wanted to participate in org activities as a peaceful, skillful auditor to bring others emotional-mental relief, there is the onslaught (instead) of IAS and Ideal Org registrars. The fundraising and aims to “break you” and control you (your entire life and schedule) are non-stop.
For at least five years before I figured out to leave, I arrived at a thought, that this group is bi-polar. It spends as much energy on being absolutely dreadful to its participants as it does delivering some good. I suppose, once the balance tips and you see THE TREND has become that you are MOSTLY treated poorly, you know it’s time to leave.
But for those of us who genuinely slayed some mental dragons and gained a lot by learning how to audit and delivering gains to others, it is sad. It’s sad to see a group and set of policies that are so internally at odds with each other.
I appreciate, Karl, what you state here about learning how to audit. I agree, auditing someone else and helping them to uncover honest “root cause(s)” of their difficulties is a genuinely helpful activity. I got a lot out of auditing others, and I always got a lot out of my own auditing. I am glad to say, my experiences were positive and long-term helpful.
I’ve heard some people in and who left complain about how Objectives got changed, but I personally found the changes to be positive. Objectives delivered as a co-audit got strengthened as ‘the norm,’ for instance; people pay just the one price and then co-audit to their heart’s content, as the saying goes. The approach has still a standard set of Objective processes, but hundreds more became available that are handpicked and tailored to the difficulty you bring forth that you would like to address in Objectives. If you have a good co-audit pairing, it can be quite an all-around positive experience.
Of course, I am speaking from the PUBLIC view. I can only imagine how dreadful and onerous getting through Objectives might be for an org staff member or Sea Org member. I am confident all sorts of impossibilities and ridiculous obstacles are put there to make it not a good, helpful experience at all — learning what I am (now out) about what the life of a staff or Sea Org member is like.
Hi Peridot,
Thanks for sharing your personal experience. Whew! I have observed the same things you describe. And I agree that it’s too bad that basic auditing cannot be made easily and readily available, and supported for broad use …at least by the COS.
My attitude is that I am simply going to be of service to my fellow human beings in any way they appreciate. And Fxxx DM, the C.O.S, and any other sociopaths who don’t like it. 😁
Scientologists think they are saving the world but Hubbard did not. His motivation was power over others and greed. With respect, I think you are projecting onto him a noble motivation he did not share.
Go point. But I think he was both. I think he was trying to clear the planet. I believe he thought he was it’s savior. He was insane so he could think he was doing good while he was harming people.
For sure what you stated is an argument we’ve all had about him: his motive.
Reading this the Jewish proverb popped into my head. I may not be quoting it exactly but it’s something like, “He who saves one life, saves the world entire.” You kinda have to save yourself first, before you can do anyone else any good.
Saving the world is a delusional goal.
World savers are the most dangerous people in history. Ron was one of those.
Saving the world is an impossible, delusional goal.
It is or it is not. If you change some perimeters it can always become a little better. It can always become a little better as it is. It can always become better – for everyone. But there are a lot who doesn’t want that really.
Saving the world is surely a delusional thing. Saving the world, also planet Earth, would be – all thetan must go back to where they came from. Unfortunately they do not know about – and are unable to do so. Do Scientologist know what they want to do? They are unable to Clear the Planet – much more unable to Clear the Universe. They live only with the idea doing it – but there are mistakes in the work of LRH… for which they are unable to find out. What are the mistakes? One is surely, Clearing, and this and that clearing, and, and the consequences of not clearing… which brings about Suppression and SPs… and not seeing that that is not the enemy… but a justificatin. Saving the world would be to take out the Fear… which could be done with Clearing… but everybody here knows perfectly well about this misleading fears for suppression, e.g. suppressors in the church. It is horrible what they do about… they change one fear against another – and this one is worser than the original one. So what? I think the original fear is loosing ARC, and this fear has thousand variables… LRH had the same problem, he is completely on the line of this problem… all his tech goes in circles. His tech can be used, but not for clearing his fears… because there are some which others not have. Having not the same fears as LRH makes you to a suppressive person – today.
I wanted to say that… Hoping my english is good enough… in love for everyone here…
Thanks Brian for sharing your wisdom!